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Given its immense territory, uneven distribution of resources and multinational population, regional aspects of development and spatial planning of economic activities are unavoidably matters of vital concern in the Soviet Union. Soviet budgetary regulations allow funds to be directed either to local governments or through industrial ministries. They are responsible for a large percentage of housing investment, and their enterprises fund the bulk of preschool institutions. Many welfare programmes are funded through budgets subordinate to local soviets. Studies of regional inequalities that utilize indices of housing, preschool institutions, and many welfare programmes evaluates the unintended territorial ramifications of industrial ministries' investment programmes and the allocation patterns of local soviets who are responding to any number of local conditions and pressures. Moreover, in a centrally planned economy like the Soviet Union the goal of investment policy is not to maximize the level of national income or industrial output in general, but to maximize the total output of a definite structure, determined by central planners in accordance with the dictates of the communist party.